Bobby Jay said:
An article surfaces suggesting Prowse knew about Empire's secret plot reveal, they trace the evidence back to an old fanzine who interviewed Prowse and all they have to say about it is correct the date to 1977!
They only correct the date because it's completely self-serving. Makes all the revisionist lies seem like there may be some truth to them. It's well documented that Lucas first hired Foster to write a sequel story, then Brackett not long after.
He just needs to plant some doubt in the minds of the TFNers and they'll blindly buy whatever he's selling. In this case, they want to believe he had it all planned in 1975, just as he keeps trying to assert. They aren't going to go to the trouble of researching the truth. That would be something that would contradict the lies they've chosen to believe - the lies they want to believe. The lies they need to believe.
Instead of telling the truth - there is no way Prowse knew the story - that hadn't been written yet - he turns it into "...uh...yeah...Prowse, he...uh...he found out my original story somehow".
Lucas is a lot of things, but he's first & foremost very media savvy. He's always looking for ways to push that Original Story bullshit. With this old newspaper clipping, the fan base just served him one on a silver platter. Genius on Lucas' part to play this one the way he has.